Monday, August 26, 2013

For a few months I had a craving to re-read and re-watch The Joy Luck Club. In theory, this should have been an easy craving to indulge. I have the book and I have the film, or at least I thought so. A hunt ensued to find the book, which I finally did at the bottom of a closet, in a box labeled "School Files." The film, however, no such luck. I managed to borrow the movie from the library and viola! Craving indulged.

So what triggered the craving? Andrew McCarthy.

I was not aware until last Fall McCarthy is a travel writer, and quite a successful one. My awareness came from a brief article somewhere discussing his book The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down. I thought, "he's a writer now?" Then I thought, "I have to read this book." (I suspect my first reaction was similar to thousands of others who grew up in the 1980s.)

And what a great read.

The basic selling premise of the book is McCarthy leaves his everyday life in order to find himself and come home again. His quest is to become the man who he believes he needs to be in order to marry his long-time love "D" and settle down with his daughter and son. As he stated in an interview with LA Times, "I have to have me so we can have us." All of this questing takes place under the umbrella of his travel writing engagements, which is the real narrative here.

You know from the start of the book the marriage takes place. Oops - spoiler alert! So there is no question of whether or not he feels he fulfills his quest or at least enough of it to get married. Why read the book then, right? Well, to me the book is more about the geographical travels then the personal journey threaded through them.

McCarthy has used his travel experiences as an engaging backdrop and as a character actor in his story. He walks the route of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, hikes across a glacier in Patagonia, travels the Amazon via boat, explores Baltimore with a close friend, and climbs Kilimanjaro. Because I want to go to each locale his travel experiences popped off the page. Well, except maybe the Amazon as I don't do well with bugs but that's not the point.

At the same time I enjoyed the travel visuals, I empathized with his struggles with being around people all the time on his adventures and wanting desperately to be away from said people. It is a contradiction, to be sure, when traveling if you want to experience a new locale. You must explore where you are but at the same time long for the comfort of solitude will doing it. Not an easy feat for an introvert.

Overall, Longest Way Home is a balanced combination of a memoir and a travel book. It is neither one nor the other, but a palatable combination which made me wish other authors had figured out the formula first before attempting their own memoirs. The book is self-indulgent as a memoir, the author wanting to make it relevant for himself and not just the readers. And this is okay. Many authors fail at understanding, however, without another story-telling 'catch' many readers fall away by the middle of a memoir and lope through to the finish if self-indulgence is all there is (*cough* Rob Lowe *cough*). That is not the case here.

Point of note: There is a randomness to the sequencing of the travels, the lineage best understood by the author then the reader. This may be distracting or off-putting to some readers. But if you focus on the locales it all comes together tidily.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Synopsis With an irresistibly casual writing style, Ferris makes readers a part of his fictional advertising agency from the moment we open the book. Through numerous impromptu conversations, colleagues come alive. We learn that Larry and Amber have had an affair, and that Amber is pregnant. We know that Chris Yop is panicking because he exchanged his office chair without permission, and that Joe Pope is universally despised because he got promoted and now everyone has to listen to him. No one likes Karen Woo because she's always trying to seem smarter than everyone else. And the head boss, Lynn, has cancer, but she doesn't want anyone to know. We understand that the agency is in trouble, and that the unstable Tom Mota is being laid off. We realize that anyone could be next. And we're dying to know what's going to happen.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Saturday Snapshot is a weekly meme hosted (now) by Melinda at West Metro Mommy. The guidelines are to post a photo that you or a friend or family member have taken and then link it back to Melinda's original post for the week. Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.

A few weeks ago I had the good fortunate to take in a local production of "Spamalot." Although the sound was not perfect, the show was a most excellent good time! Still giggle a little when I think of the bunny. I was not expecting the ending; suffice to say the actors could barely keep it together themselves when they were through a bit of a curve ball.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Saturday Snapshot is a weekly meme hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. The guidelines are to post a photo that you or a friend or family member have taken and then link it back to Alyce's original post for the week. Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.

This was an exciting week here, all related to activities I had not participation in other than as a ecstatic observer.

The most exciting was the return of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield after 144 days in space. I along with thousands of others followed his journey via his twitter feed and followed the live feeds of the return overseas. The photos and videos he took were/are spectacular. I am still awed someone in space--in SPACE--was communicating so freely with the world. And a Canadian too!

I loved his final transmission, so to speak, which was a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" (which is available on Youtube). Do want to give a shout out to Emm Gryner, who completed the piano arrangement for the cover. I met and interviewed her years ago, so feel a distant connection to the whole thing. Read how she became involved in the cover on her blog.

Not quite equally exciting was Chelsea FC's win over Benfica to win the Europa League Football Championship. Been a roller coaster year for the Blues but a bit of joy at the end for all us fans!! Well, and the players too. :-)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Saturday Snapshot is a weekly meme hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. The guidelines are to post a photo that you or a friend or family member have taken and then link it back to Alyce's original post for the week. Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.

April was daffodil month here, in support of Canadians living with cancer. I wore this daffodil pin in memory of my aunt and in honour of many friends who have battled cancer over the years.

Who would you wear it for?

And because some of you are surprised/dismayed by the weather where I am, April 30 brought forward wind flurries, snow flurries and rain. A cornucopia of weather!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Synopsis
Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven't been burned as witches since 1727, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them?

Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women's lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth—whether it's about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children—to jump-start a new conversation about feminism. With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Saturday Snapshot is a weekly meme hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. The guidelines are to post a photo that you or a friend or family member have taken and then link it back to Alyce's original post for the week. Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.

We had a lovely relapse into winter this month. April Fool's Day brought us this:

April 13 brought this:

And April 20 brought a little more:

I love the snow but my enthusiasm is starting to wane!

(Oh, and FYI, I've hit Instagram as an experiment. If interested, look for hopechaser11!)

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Synopsis:Deo arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, plagued by horrific dreams, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. He ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookstores. Then Deo begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, pointing him eventually in the direction of Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing. Kidder breaks new ground in telling this unforgettable story as he travels with Deo back over a turbulent life in search of meaning and forgiveness.

An extraordinary writer, Tracy Kidder once again shows us what it means to be fully human by telling a story about the heroism inherent in ordinary people, a story about a life based on hope.

About Let It Read

Let It Read started as a minor thought in a major brain. The thought was to grow a blog where readers could go to find reviews of a variety of books, news about books and authors, basically anything exciting and boring that had caught their discerning literary eye.

The blog is not intended to report on every review, every author, every book in existence. I do need to save time to actually read the some of the books being posted about after all. Hopefully, though, you will find something of interest.